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SPRINGFIELD – Senate Democrats narrowly rammed through legislation purported to represent school funding reform, despite analysis from the state school board showing that plan was little more than a thinly-veiled bailout for Chicago schools. The bill faces an uncertain future in the House of Representatives, where lawmakers are currently reviewing other options. However, lawmakers did come together to pass a

SPRINGFIELD – Senate Democrats narrowly rammed through legislation purported to represent school funding reform, despite analysis from the state school board showing that plan was little more than a thinly-veiled bailout for Chicago schools. The bill faces an uncertain future in the House of Representatives, where lawmakers are currently reviewing other options. However, lawmakers did come together to pass a

SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) voted with a strong bipartisan majority to pass legislation May 12 appropriating $714 million for human service programs.             “This isn’t ideal, it doesn’t represent full funding for these programs, but it’s an important step,” said Sen. Syverson. “We have to make sure programs that benefit our most vulnerable residents don’t close down due

SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) voted against legislation that would take hundreds of millions of dollars from downstate and suburban schools and use the money to help bail out Chicago Public Schools (CPS).            “The bill was dishonestly presented as an attempt at reforming the way schools are funded to help poor districts, but in reality it’s nothing more

With just over three weeks remaining in the 2016 spring legislative session, Illinois has entered its eleventh month without a state budget. However, recent action in the Senate to advance bipartisan budget measures for higher education and social service providers have some lawmakers hopeful a timely resolution to the impasse is possible. While a majority of Senate lawmakers were able

SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) voted May 5 to bring all higher education funding up to the same level that Democrat leaders had previously pushed through for just one Chicago-area university.                      “All of our universities and colleges are just as important as Chicago State University,” said Sen. Syverson. “This is a major win that we were able to

SPRINGFIELD – Positive progress continued this week when Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law an appropriations bill that funds higher education and MAP grants for college students through September. State Senator Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) indicated this is a positive sign of bipartisan compromise, and is a step in the right direction. Also this week, it is now up to the

SPRINGFIELD –  The Senate unanimously advanced on April 22 two bipartisan measures to bridge funding for higher education and critical human services. While Senate Republican lawmakers noted the proposals aren’t perfect solutions, they stressed the legislation includes the money necessary to finance the spending—a “reset” in budgeting that is much-needed in Illinois. The need for institutional reforms in Illinois was

“It is vastly important that we keep all of our colleges and universities open, and this bill (SB2059) accomplishes that for now, as well as helping low-income students stay in school by funding MAP grants,” said State Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford), who supported the measure. “However, I’m deeply disappointed that the final legislation sends a vastly disproportionate amount of money

SPRINGFIELD – During fiscal 2014, former Governor Quinn’s administration overpaid by $168 million to local governments and schools in Personal Property Replacement Tax fund (PPRT) disbursements, according to data recently turned up by the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR). State Senator Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) is questioning whether the overpayments were an accident. The overpayments included more than $23 million to